[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by State Senator Michael Testa, Republican representing the first legislative district all the way down in South Jersey.

Good to see you, Senator.

- Great to be seen.

It's good to see you as well, Steve.

- Let everyone know the counties that you represent.

- So I represent all of Cape May County, the majority of Cumberland County and a sliver of Atlantic County.

- The whole range of issues that you and your colleagues are looking at or not looking at, your top two or three priorities in the state legislature are?

- I would say our budget right now, which is severely bloated at 53 billion.

I would talk about our school funding, specifically our rural school funding and our energy master plan.

I think we need to really take a long hard look at the realities of what can be achieved and what cannot be achieved and whether we should even be going down this green road to nowhere it seems.

- Go back to the school funding.

The biggest beef you have or argument you have with the school funding formula as it relates to quote rural districts as you are describing, what is it specifically?

- Well, look, you have some of my rural school districts I'll use Weymouth as an example, who continues to get cut.

There's an actual legitimate school safety issue there.

They were cut about $400,000 last year.

They continue to get cut again this year.

With Weymouth you walked directly into the school.

They want a security measure that has a vestibule to protect school students.

I think that everybody would agree on that.

And then you have a school district like Wildwood that got cut in the seven figures.

They can't possibly be able to budget to have that level of a cut each and every year and have their budget just be so up and down.

It's wholly unfair.

We need to do better than that.

Yet somehow in the budget there is room for a 12 million French museum in Jersey City.

It just seems wholly unfair and it's a a case of the haves and the have nots.

- So now let's stay on the issue of education before we move to some climate change green road to nowhere, as you described.

Let's do this.

You have been outspoken on what you believe to be the need for parents to have more control, influence, I'm not sure what word you want me to use when it comes to what their children are learning in school.

What specific subjects and what concerns do you have that would not allow for teachers to play that role?

- Well, I just wanna have more parental involvement.

I mean, just even over this past week, you saw that the Department of Education who said that they had advertised when parents could sign up to be involved.

They did this over a holiday weekend.

They announced it on holy Thursday.

Obviously Good Friday is a holiday for a lot of practicing Christians in the state of New Jersey.

So they're not gonna necessarily be aware of when they have to sign up.

Over the weekend obviously is the Easter weekend, and they had until Monday at 12 o'clock, I believe, to sign up.

- I appreciate the logistics but you've talked about sex education.

What specifically are your concerns about what is in the curriculum regarding sex education when in fact if I don't, if I understand the law correctly, any parent can opt out and have their kid not be in that class.

So what exactly is the concern?

- Well, the opt-out provision is actually the concern, Steve, because most parents are actually have a level of trust that what their children are being taught is in fact appropriate.

And something that my colleague Senator Holly Schepisi exposed that was in the Westfield curriculum, I have to tell you, if a neighbor were to show an eight, nine, or 10 year old that material they could be put on Megan's law list.

I mean it was really graphic material that didn't make much sense to me that was going to be taught to school-aged children.

And I think that parents should absolutely be made aware of what the materials are before there's this opt-out provision possibly having an opt-in provision.

And I think that we saw, what the level of parental involvement meant in the 2021 election cycle.

There were parents that were outraged, parents that wanted to be more involved in their children's education and they didn't want to necessarily have to opt out.

They wanna be able to maybe opt in and they wanna see the materials before they are presented to their children.

- It's interesting, Senator, you're one of the, considered to be one of the most thoughtful, articulate, senators who's very collegial with your colleagues and the way you communicate.

I'm obsessed about communication, it's very civil, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but unfortunately it is.

Question, you're also a major, you played a role in President Trump's campaign, if I'm not mistaken.

What role did you play exactly?

- I, along with Senator Joseph Pennacchio were his campaign co-chairs for the state of New Jersey in 2020.

- So here's what I'm curious about.

Given how civility matters to you, you can sense it in the conversation with you right now, what role do you believe President Trump has played in terms of contributing to a degree of polarization and divisiveness, not to mention political violence connected to January 6th.

- Obviously President Trump and I have different styles, and Steve, I appreciate the fact that you are giving me some kudos on my attempts to always be civil with the other side.

- Well deserved, well deserved.

- Well thank you.

It's called civil discourse for a reason.

We're allowed to disagree and I think that we need to be civil.

- Without being enemies.

- That's absolutely correct.

- One of my friends who's a big supporter of Donald Trump, said, Steve we're facing a civil war.

And I thought, don't people just disagree?

No, you have to be my enemy.

You don't buy that.

- I don't buy the fact that you have to be my enemy.

Look, I mean, there some areas of political discourse where I'm firmly planted on the other side of the aisle from many in this state.

But guess what?

We can go grab one of New Jersey's craft beers together and some of New Jersey's greatest pizza and have a laugh and we can agree to disagree.

I think that's what our founders believed to be the check and balance.

- Well, President Trump, sorry for interrupting senator, but President Trump engages in name calling, engages in demonizing, and in fact, many have argued that he contributed to the environment on January 6th that caused an insurrection and an effort to overturn the 2020 election.

I know that's not what you're about.

- That is not what I'm about.

But I will say this, one of the issues that I had, I will say with President Trump and I will say this openly was the fact that people would not have confidence in the voting process and specifically the vote by mail process.

I'm not only a senator, but I'm a county chair.

I want people to believe in the political process that that when they go to vote or when they send a ballot in through the mail, that their vote is going to count.

- Is that the same as saying an election was stolen?

- Well, I wasn't outspoken about that at all.

I want to make sure that everybody's vote is in fact counted.

That's why we have things like challengers, Steve, that are making sure that people are doing their job and doing their job correctly and counting their votes.

We should hold everybody's feet to the fire to make sure that our elections have integrity.

And myself and other colleagues like Senator Corrado, Senator Bucco have election integrity bill packages.

That's where we should be focused to make sure.

- We're talking about an insurrection on the Capitol to stop the process where 60 plus courts had decided that there was not enough evidence, and you're a lawyer.

I'm not.

But the process was playing forward and the president actually said, let's get Mike Pence to do the right thing.

And you know the Constitution better than most.

It wasn't in the Constitution, it wasn't his role.

And all I'm asking is, to what degree did President Trump contribute to that political violence?

- Well, with regards to the violence, for the people that were down in Washington, DC, protesting, that's their first amendment right.

Anybody, and I will say this Steve, I'll speak for myself.

I won't speak for President Trump.

I'm not him.

And he and I don't communicate on a regular basis, if at all.

I will say this, anyone that stormed the Capitol building and tried to get inside the Capitol building should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That is not okay.

That is not American.

That is not upholding the election process the way we are supposed to uphold.

That is behaving like a third world nation.

- That is State Senator Michael Testa from the first legislative district.

We appreciate his time.

I'm Steve Adubato, we will see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Veolia, The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Kean University.

IBEW Local 102.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let'’s be healthy together.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And by Operating Engineers, Local 825.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

Here at Kean University, everyone gets their chance to climb higher.

Michael came to Kean and found his passion for health care, and now he's a doctor.

After Tricia graduated, her graphic design work was featured in The New York Times.

Samantha is studying athletic training and finding her path to an internship with the New York Giants.

Real Students.

Real Stories.

Real Success.

Cougars Climb Higher.

Kean University.